A comparative study on the effectiveness of budesonide nasal irrigation versus normal saline nasal irrigation in post endoscopic sinus surgery patients

: Comparative studies evaluating budesonide and saline nasal irrigations for patients with polyposis/ rhinosinusitis are deficient in the current literature. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of budesonide nasal irrigations compared with saline irrigations during postoperative care of patients with rhinosinusitis.: A total of 100 patients who underwent functional Endoscopic Sinus SurgeryESS) were randomly divided into two groups (A and B) of 50 participants each (normal saline [NS] + budesonide irrigation and NS irrigation alone, respectively). Pre- and post operative evaluation was done with a 22-item sinonasal outcomes test (SNOT-22), and Lund Kennedy endoscopic (LKE scores) in second and sixth week. : The condition of the patients significantly improved in both intervention arms related to SNOT-22 and LKE score at each postoperative visit (Group A: p<0.001, Group B: p<0.001). The reduction of SNOT 22 score was higher in budesonide group by 10% (mean SNOT 22 score from 33.31 to 15.84) compared to normal saline group (mean SNOT 22 score from 37.49 to 22.24). The reduction of LKEscore was higher in budesonide group by 18.69% (mean LKE score from 4.49 to 2.71) compared to normal saline group (mean LKE score from 5.02 to 4). : Steroid nasal irrigation is a good option in postoperative EES patients. The difference of reduction of both SNOT 22 score and LKEscore was statistically significant (p <0.05 and p<0.01 respectively) by repeated contrast test. This study is one of the few comparative studies evaluating budesonide and saline nasal irrigations in post-ESS patients.